co-conspirator

Or co·con·spir·a·tor

[koh-kuhn-spir-uh-ter]

noun

1. a fellow conspirator; associate or collaborator in a conspiracy.

Word History and Origins

Origin of co-conspirator¹

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

Outlets like Newsmax have even gone so far as to portray Maxwell as possibly “innocent,” as if she were just a dumb bunny wrapped up in Epstein’s schemes, instead of an eager co-conspirator.

From Salon

Betro, 45, had travelled to England from her home in West Allis, Wisconsin, to carry out a planned assassination that was conceived by co-conspirator Mohammed Nazir, whom she had met on a dating app.

From BBC

But it was a second failed plot, alongside her co-conspirator, to frame an innocent English man for Betro's failed shootings that eventually led to her downfall.

From BBC

Another co-conspirator involved in the scheme, Mihai-Adrian Humoiu, was sentenced to over seven years in prison in May, according to the FBI.

From Los Angeles Times

While it’s true she has always been something of an elusive character in this saga, the evidence clearly shows she was a co-conspirator in a very sleazy enterprise — and her actions were at least partly a twisted labor of love.

From Salon

Related Words

• aide 
• associate 
• collaborator 
• conspirator 

When To Use

What does co-conspirator mean?

A co-conspirator is a fellow conspirator—someone engaged in a secret plan by multiple people to do something evil or illegal.Such a plan is called a conspiracy. The word conspiracy can also refer to the act of making such plans—the act of conspiring—or to the group making the plans. In a legal context, conspiracy refers to an agreement by two or more people to commit a crime.In any of these cases, the people involved can be called conspirators. The word co-conspirator refers to a conspirator conspiring with one or more other conspirators in the same conspiracy. By itself, the word conspirator always implies that there are multiple people involved—there is never a single conspirator. Technically, the phrase fellow co-conspirator is redundant, since co-conspirator means the same thing as fellow conspirator.A conspiracy theory is an explanation of an event that says it was the result of a secret and often complex and evil plot by multiple co-conspirators. People who promote or formulate conspiracy theories often reject the standard or accepted explanation of unexplained or unusual events and claim that they are the doing of evil conspirators secretly conspiring behind the scenes.Example: This proves that the crime wasn’t the work of one man—it was carried out by several co-conspirators who are now under arrest.